The influence of maternal and perinatal high-fat diet on ozone-induced pulmonary responses in offspring

ABSTRACT

There is growing interest in understanding how maternal diet might affect the sensitivity of offspring to environmental exposures. Previous studies demonstrated that adult rat offspring (approximately 6-months-old) from dams given a high-fat diet (HFD) prior to, during, and after pregnancy displayed elevated pulmonary responses to an acute ozone (O₃) exposure. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of maternal and perinatal HFD on pulmonary and metabolic responses to O₃ in male and female young-adult offspring (approximately 3-month old). One-month-old F0 female Long–Evans rats commenced HFD (60% kcal from fat) or control diet (CD; 10.5% kcal from fat) and were bred on PND 72. Offspring were maintained on respective HFD or CD until PND 29 when all groups were switched to CD. The 3-months-old female and male offspring (n = 10/group) were exposed to air or 0.8 ppm O₃ for 5hr/day for 2 consecutive days. Maternal and perinatal HFD significantly increased body weight and body fat % in offspring regardless of gender. Ozone exposure, but not maternal and perinatal diet, induced hyperglycemia and glucose intolerance in the offspring. Ozone-induced alterations in pulmonary function were exacerbated by maternal and perinatal HFD in both offspring genders. Pulmonary injury/inflammation markers in response to O₃ exposure such as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid total protein, lactate dehydrogenase, total cells, and neutrophils were further augmented in offspring (males>females) from dams fed the HFD. Data suggest that maternal and perinatal HFD may enhance the susceptibility of offspring to O₃-induced pulmonary injury and that these effects may be sex-specific.

KEYWORDS:

• High-fat diet
• ozone
• maternal obesity
• pulmonary injury

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Drs. Steve Gavett, Christopher Lau, and Ian Gilmour of the US EPA for their critical review of the manuscript. We thank Dr. Mark Higuchi and Mr. Abdul Malek Khan for performing the inhalation exposures and finalizing all exposure parameters.

Disclosures

The authors declare that there are no conflicting financial interests to disclose. The research described in this article has been reviewed by the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the views and the policies of the Agency, nor does mention of trade names of commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by US Environmental Protection Agency funds.